eccsandiego

And here’s another “good” one from 1 July 2000 – which exact date I still recall for “obvious” reasons – when I flew on the erstwhile Deutsche BA from Munich to London, bypassing Paris which was my home at the time (and for 20 years). As I stood in the check-in line behind a “large” American family of 4, consisting of father, mother, teenage daughter and aunt, I thought for sure I was “dead even before arrival”. Imagine how I broke out in a cold sweat when the father said to the BA agent, that they didn’t want to... sit together!!!!!!!! But then imagine my “yuge” relief as the agent replied, I’m sorry but your seats are... pre-assigned and cannot be changed. I could hardly contain myself and wanted to do a wild dance right on the spot and shout at the top of my lungs, There IS a God after all!!! Finally, since I was already seated towards the front of the plane when that family walked by towards the back, to this day I wonder just how they had managed (or not). And also to this day it r

It’s been years since my brother-in-law and I wanted to start a new airline that not only sold tickets accordingly to weight, but also seated passengers accordingly. And this after both he and I had to sit in the middle seat between two extremely large individuals who “overflowed” into our seats, on LONG transatlantic flights that became even “longer” for that reason. My bones still ache at the mere memory of it...

I used to fly United to and from the US during the 20 years when I lived in Paris, and always dreaded their economy class – not only the width (or the lack thereof) but also the pitch, among the worst of all the airlines that I've had to 'privilege' to fly on. Pretty soon I realized that it was worth the extra $$ to fly economy plus (or whatever it was called), in order not to add aches and pains to jet-lag upon my return home, 9 hours ahead of the US west coast.
But as the quality of UA customer service became increasingly abominable, I opted for other airlines and have never looked back. In short, it would take much more than a wider seat to get me to fly UA again, and I know I'm far from being alone...

I recall several international flights during the past 2 years when different classes boarded through different jetways, and I assume also deplaned the same way upon arrival at the destination. I can't swear to the latter, though, because I wasn't paying attention and only wanted to get off after those 10+ hour flights!
(And yes, those were widebodies, some with upper decks, and I was amazed how quickly everyone boarded resulting in early departure.)

Yep, indy2001, I agree totally. As a former resident of Paris for 20 years, I can vouch for the fact that it's bad enough to have to deal with the 9-hour jet lag from the US west coast to Central European Time, but to have my carefully-planned in-flight snooze time disrupted by such "unnecessary" incidents can really set me back even further.